Saudi Newspaper Warns of Nuclear Fallout

.. The Saudi government is now preparing plans to deal with “any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards” that may arise from an attack on Iran’s nuclear reactors. This was reported by a top Saudi newspaper, Okaz, and relayed by a leading German news service, DPA — one day after Dick Cheney paid a visit to the kingdom. As we noted, no one knows exactly what was said at that confab of allied authoritarians — but something sure lit a fire under the Saudis, and convinced them that urgent action is needed to brace for the lethal overspill from a strike on Iran.

Floyd points out that nothing in Saudi Arabia becomes the top news story without government approval. That such a story should be released the day after Cheney’s visit, sends a message to everyone about what’s on Cheney’s mind.

This, combined with the dismissal of Centcom chief, Admiral Fallon, Petreus’ claim to have evidence (which he doesn’t produce) that Iran was responsible for the recent shelling of the Green Zone,

. . and the Egyptian report that a nuclear sub has been ordered by Bush into the Gulf, the bleak picture in both Pakistan and Afghanistan (accelerating collapse of Musharraf’s power and strategy, the coming spring offensive in the Taliban’s announced drive for Kabu[sic]),

. . plus the oft-stated desire of Bush and Cheney to attack Iran, and, as noted by former mideast policy official William K. Polk at Juan Cole’s site just a few days ago, the last time Cheney visited the nations he visited this time was right before the Iraq attack,

. . then only a moron would deny that Bush and Dick have nothing but contempt for the will of the people, congress and the courts, and that they crave war like a junkie craves his fix… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <OpEdNews>

As troubling as this news is, I think it’s a bit premature. For now, I think that the Reich is content to sit back and watch Democrats shredding each other, while the captive MSM concentrate on that. Once Democrats settle their differences and turn their attentions to McConJob, then is the time that this scenario becomes most likely, perhaps in late summer or early fall. Then the attack, if it happens, is sure to be preceded by a false-flag operation of some sort, because the people won’t be fooled by a trumped-up necessity for a preemptive strike. Iraq is too fresh in their minds, with the many lies surrounding that debacle. Instead, the attack will have to appear to be a direct retaliation for an attack against the US or Israel. When and if this happens, it will fall to us to scour the world news in order to learn and expose the truth, because we may rest assured that the media will be beating the war drum.

Cross-posted from Politics Plus

GOP Identification Down 18% Since 2004

The Pew report released ten days ago represents possibly the strongest indication yet of a major ongoing partisan realignment, along the lines of what was last seen in 1930/1932–or at least half of one, as people are leaving the Republican Party in droves–almost one in five since 2004–while more independents are leaning Democratic. So many other things have been happening, however, that it doesn’t seem as if this report has gotten nearly the attention that it deserves. If nearly one in five people had left the Democratic Party since 2004, the coverage would have been so intense, it would have driven Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears into obscurity, but with the GOP undergoing collapse, not so much. Still, why are WE paying so little attention? And, more importantly, what can we do to take maximum advantage of this turn of events?

Pew (3/20):

The balance of party identification in the American electorate now favors the Democratic Party by a decidedly larger margin than in either of the two previous presidential election cycles.

In 5,566 interviews with registered voters conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press during the first two months of 2008, 36% identify themselves as Democrats, and just 27% as Republicans.

In particular, good as the news may be for Democrats, it’s main importance may be in calling attention to a potential for even further, and much more substantial gains–if Democrats will recognize the opportunity, and move to seize it.

… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Open Left>

Democrats need to concentrate on what sets up apart from Republicans, and especially on how McConJob is McSame as Bush. The media will not do it. They’d much rather cover the delegate fight between Clinton and Obama. So spreading the truth falls to us. But we have so much ammunition, it’s hard to know where to start. The GOP has brought us an illegal and immoral failed war, election fraud, spying on Americans, torture, rendition, kangaroo courts, illegally politicizing federal agencies, especially the DOJ, economic warfare against the poor and middle classes, the muzzling of scientists, corrupt outsourcing of contracts, $4.00 gasoline, scandal after scandal after scandal, and most of all, the collapse of our economy. We have the power to put the GOP out of balance, if only we choose to use it.

Cross-posted from Politics Plus

Musharraf at Risk for Impeachment

Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani on Saturday won a unanimous vote of confidence from the National Assembly and pledged to begin rolling back some of the authoritarian measures imposed late last year by President Pervez Musharraf during six weeks of de facto martial law.

Gillani, who took office Tuesday, was legally required to win a vote of confidence before his government embarks on its work. No Pakistani prime minister had ever won such a vote unanimously.

Saturday’s impassioned parliamentary session brought the latest indications that the new government, made up of the former political opposition, may make it impossible for Musharraf to remain in office, even in a much-diminished role.

Analysts and some opposition figures said the wall-to-wall support for Gillani suggested that the new government would probably be in a position to muster the two-thirds support needed in both houses of parliament to impeach Musharraf, if it chooses to do so.

“We have the numbers for impeachment,” said Khwaja Asif, a senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, or PML-N, the junior partner in the new ruling coalition, speaking to reporters after the parliamentary session.

Musharraf’s far-outnumbered party, however, said the vote in favor of Gillani on Saturday was merely a signal of willingness to work with the new government.

Musharraf’s ouster would be a serious blow to the Bush administration, which fears that its longtime ally’s abrupt departure from the political scene could trigger instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan and hamper efforts to fight AlQaeda and the Taliban.

The Bush administration has been scrambling to build ties with Pakistan’s new leaders, but two senior U.S. diplomats received a chilly reception during a visit last week. Many ordinary Pakistanis deeply resent the unflagging U.S. support for Musharraf over the last six months, even as he cracked down hard on political opponents, suspended the constitution and muzzled the electronic media… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <LA Times>

Musharraf was a fool to think that he could get away with the kinds of crimes Bush and the GOP commit here with impunity. I don’t think he can survive this, and as a result, the US will have lost considerable influence in a vital region. As the Pakistani congress moves forward, I hope Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are watching and ready to learn.

Cross-posted from Politics Plus

Another Corrupt Republican Going Down

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) – The U.S. housing secretary will resign Monday morning under pressure after accusations of improper allocation of federal contracts, the Wall Street Journal reported in its Monday edition.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson will step down on Monday morning, the paper reported. The department announced late Sunday that Jackson will make a statement to the press on Monday morning.

Jackson has faced calls for his resignation after lawmakers have said he behaved improperly in awarding federal contracts…

Inserted from <Reuters>

I know. No surprises here. Yawn!

If one resigned every day for the rest of Bush’s term, a virtually infinite supply will remain to be fired ASAP in 2009.

Cross-posted from Politics Plus

Siegelman Seeks Answers, Eyes Rove

Upon his release from prison yesterday, former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman sounded like a man intent on figuring out why partisanship apparently landed him behind bars for nine months.

Speaking by telephone in his first post-prison interview, shortly after he had left the federal penitentiary at Oakdale, La., Mr. Siegelman said there had been “abuse of power” in his case, and repeatedly cited Karl Rove, the former White House political director.

“His fingerprints are smeared all over the case,” Mr. Siegelman said, a day after a federal appeals court ordered him released on bond and said there were legitimate questions about his case. He was sentenced to serve seven years last June after a guilty verdict on bribery and corruption charges a year earlier.

In measured tones after spending nine months at the prison, the former governor, a Democrat, said he would press to have Mr. Rove answer questions to Congress about his possible involvement in the case.

“When Attorney General Gonzales and Karl Rove left office in a blur, they left the truth buried in their documents,” Mr. Siegelman said, referring to Alberto R. Gonzales. “It’s going to be my quest to encourage Congress to ensure that Karl Rove either testifies, or takes the Fifth.”

Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, told the NYT, “There’s absolutely, positively, no truth to any of the allegations and literally no evidence for any of it.”

Really, Bob? “No evidence” at all?

I seem to recall Republican lawyer Dana Jill Simpson, answering questions under oath from House investigators, offering at least some evidence.

In the interview, first obtained by Time and released today by the committee, Simpson explains the context in which she knew what Alabama Republican operative William Canary meant on a campaign conference call in 2002 when he said “Karl” had gotten the Justice Department on Siegelman. Simpson told House investigators that the son of Gov. Bob Riley (R), Rob Riley, had told her about the conversations between Rove and Canary. From the transcript:

“But I knew from conversations that I had had with Rob that Bill Canary was very connected to Karl Rove. Additionally, there was some talk — and that’s not in my affidavit — about Karl had — about Washington; that Karl had it taken care of in Washington.”

The investigation into Siegelman didn’t lead to any prosecutions before he could run for re-election, so in 2005, Dana Jill Simpson said Rove went back to the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice to push for a more aggressive approach. (Apparently, there was a concern that the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama “messed up” the case that was supposed to keep Siegelman from running.)

Q: Okay. And did Rob give you the name of the person at — I’m just going to call it Public Integrity — that he thought he understood Karl Rove had spoken to?

[Simpson]: No, he said it was the head guy there and he said that that guy had agreed to allocate whatever resources, so evidently the guy had the power to allocate resources, you know.

Q: To the Siegelman prosecution?

[Simpson] Yes. And that he’d allocate all resources necessary.

“Literally no evidence” of Rove’s involvement in this controversy? Maybe someone ought to make Mr. Luskin a copy of the recent “60 Minutes” report… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Carpetbagger Report>

That’s all the evidence I need. The ideal here would be for Rove to be so preoccupied keeping his own Nazi butt out of prison so as not to have time to use his extensive criminal talent to benefit McConJob in his attempt to become Bush III. Unless all the GOP miscreants involved in the attempt to convert the US to one-party fascist rule are held accountable for their crimes, it will happen again.

Cross-posted from Politics Plus

Spinning Failure in Iraq

Shiite militiamen in Basra openly controlled wide swaths of the city on Saturday and staged increasingly bold raids on Iraqi government forces sent five days ago to wrest control from the gunmen, witnesses said, as Iraqi political leaders grew increasingly critical of the stalled assault.

Witnesses in Basra said members of the most powerful militia in the city, the Mahdi Army, were setting up checkpoints and controlling traffic in many places ringing the central district controlled by some of the 30,000 Iraqi Army and police forces involved in the assault. Fighters were regularly attacking the government forces, then quickly retreating.

Senior members of several political parties said the operation, ordered by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, had been poorly planned. The growing discontent adds a new level of complication to the American-led effort to demonstrate that the Iraqi government had made strides toward being able to operate a functioning country and keep the peace without thousands of American troops.

Mr. Maliki has staked his reputation on the success of the Basra assault, fulfilling a longstanding American desire for him to boldly take on militias.

But as criticism of the assault has risen, it has brought into question another American benchmark of progress in Iraq: political reconciliation… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

This has nothing to do with Al Qaeda or sectarian violence. It’s a struggle between Shia militia’s, the Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigade. Maliki is trying to consolidate then power of his faction over that of Al Sadr. Despite support from Bush, McConJob, Petraeus, and the GOP, Maliki’s effort is failing. In many cases, his troops have surrendered and handed over their weapons to the Sadrists, as pictured above. But when all else fails, they can depend on the Reichsministry of propaganda, aka Faux Noise.

On Thursday, President Bush declared that the violence currently engulfing the southern Iraqi city of Basra is “very positive” because it shows that the Iraqi government “is willing to take on elements that believe they are beyond the law.” On the same day, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said that clashes in Basra are “a credit not only to the Iraqis, but to the success of the surge.”

On Mike Gallagher’s radio show yesterday, Chris Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday, echoed the Bush administration’s spin and declared that violence in Basra is “good news”:

We’re going to talk about Iraq and the Iraqi offensive, which I think, in a sense, is good news. Because it’s the Iraqi government, who’s mostly Shi’ite, taking on Shi’ite outlaw militias in the southern part of the country and this is after all what the whole point of the surge and our efforts there was supposed to be all about, was to get the Iraqis to stand up and control their own country.

… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Faux Noise can not save the Reich from their failures. They can only misinform GOP twenty percenters and apolitical sheeple who lack the civic responsibility to inform themselves. While the rest of the MSM is largely silent, Faux Noise grossly and intentionally distorts the truth. It falls to us to spread the word in every way we can, because there can be no democracy when voters do not have valid factual information.

Cross-posted from Politics Plus

McCain Guru Linked to Subprime Crisis

The general co-chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign, former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), led the charge in 1999 to repeal a Depression-era banking regulation law that Democrat Barack Obama claimed on Thursday contributed significantly to today’s economic turmoil.

“A regulatory structure set up for banks in the 1930s needed to change because the nature of business had changed,” the Illinois senator running for president said in a New York economic speech. “But by the time [it] was repealed in 1999, the $300 million lobbying effort that drove deregulation was more about facilitating mergers than creating an efficient regulatory framework.”

Gramm’s role in the swift and dramatic recent restructuring of the nation’s investment houses and practices didn’t stop there.

A year after the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act repealed the old regulations, Swiss Bank UBS gobbled up brokerage house Paine Weber. Two years later, Gramm settled in as a vice chairman of UBS’s new investment banking arm.

Later, he became a major player in its government affairs operation. According to federal lobbying disclosure records, Gramm lobbied Congress, the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department about banking and mortgage issues in 2005 and 2006.

During those years, the mortgage industry pressed Congress to roll back strong state rules that sought to stem the rise of predatory tactics used by lenders and brokers to place homeowners in high-cost mortgages.

For his work, Gramm and two other lobbyists collected $750,000 in fees from UBS’s American subsidiary. In the past year, UBS has written down more then $18 billion in exposure to subprime loans and other risky securities and is considering cutting as many as 8,000 jobs.

Gramm did not respond to an e-mail, and was unavailable for comment, according to a UBS spokesman. The bank has no official position on the subprime crisis, the spokesman said, but is a member of the Financial Services Roundtable and other industry groups that are actively lobbying Congress on the issue.

Now, some housing experts and economists see Gramm’s thinking in the recent housing proposal from McCain, the Republican Party’s presumed presidential nominee. Gramm is often a surrogate for the Arizona senator, particularly in meetings focused on the economy. And McCain has hinted he’d consider the former Texas senator for Treasury secretary in a McCain administration… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Politico>

To sum this up, McConJob’s chief financial guru was a key player rolling back consumer protection against predatory lending practices during the GOP controlled 109th Congress. Do we want such a man as Secretary of the Treasury? McConJob’s stated solution to the housing crisis is to reduce regulation. Four years of McConJob equals four more years of Bush!

Cross-posted from Politics Plus

September 11 Was a Third-rate Operation

In late April of 2001, just five months before the September 11 attack date, Mohamed Atta was stopped for driving erratically late at night near Ft Lauderdale, Florida. By then, the pilots all had their licenses, final-phase planning must have been under way. Yet, here was Osama bin Laden’s field commander for the entire operation, driving a red Pontiac (though 15 years old), with Arabic stickers, and no driver’s license, or at least none he would show.

Warned and lucky, Atta was told to show up for a court date, with a license, or a warrant would go out for his arrest. He got the license but failed to show. Ten weeks later, he was stopped for speeding, but unaccountably no computer coughed up a warrant. Now Florida has reciprocity; so at least in theory and for no good reason, the September 11 attack team functioned its last four months with an arrest warrant out for their leader in 50 states.

Having sorted out the contestants in their publicly touted “mastermind” of the month contest, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released this disclosure of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, (so successfully water-boarded in Pakistan). Zacarias Moussaoui, who’d presumably attracted Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attention by advising his flight instructor that he wasn’t much interested in take-offs and landings [1], hadn’t been a member of the 9/11 teams at all; he was being held in reserve. Why? Because he was a belligerent loud-mouth and hence a security risk. As he so proved.

Point is, any decent handler with minimal judgment and authority would have yanked Moussaoui out of the country within days of this assessment. But no, he was left scheming on his own, possibly with consequences for al-Qaeda more severe than we know … such as forcing the attack date.

No license, sloppy driving, even Arabic stickers; worse, an unbalanced agent working solo. These aren’t just lapses in the learning curve of an amateur operation; these are ludicrous standards for operational security in any clandestine organization.

In the orchestrated fear campaign pursuant to the attack, we were systematically inundated with extravagant claims for al-Qaeda’s potency, reach, cohesion, dedication, vision and Satanic focus. Dr No on petrodollars! Everything Vladimir Lenin could wish he’d had or been! Of course much of this has since – in the jargon of the financial press – been “subject to downward revision”; yet, to this day, insistence on al-Qaeda as a formerly monolithic, then metastasized, demon pathology of epic capacity for terror and evil, has been virtually obligatory throughout the US media: left, right and center.

As late as June 2, 2006, National Intelligence czar John Negroponte pronounced al-Qaeda as the biggest threat to America in the world today. Again, prima facia evidence to the contrary accumulated from day one. Why, if the enemy was so formidable, were a quarter of his assets hanging out over a hayfield in the middle of nowhere, an hour and a quarter past the initial strike on the North Tower? Why were the hijacker’s identities rumbled so quickly; why didn’t they have identification documents with Anglicized, or Europeanized or Latinized names? And the big tracking question: If they’re this good tactically, how good are they strategically?

Our first clue came in late December. Having scored perhaps the most spectacular guerrilla attack in the history of warfare, what did al-Qaeda do for an encore? Would-be trans-Atlantic airline bomber Richard Reid, who couldn’t find the bathroom to blow up his shoes.

There are perfectly satisfactory answers to the above questions and others like them, but these matter less than what they spell out collectively. September 11 was a minimalist operation, funded at the cost of a modest San Francisco Bay Area condominium, by a small, weak opponent. At its height, al-Qaeda’s external operations never mounted to better than a third-rate execution.

Beyond that, al-Qaeda’s been an American-made myth: fear, credulity … and hype.

The military and the intellectuals – the social elements with perspective – were not that impressed, (the FBI and terrorism professionals were hysterical). Al-Qaeda wasn’t even the first suspect; the initial law enforcement sweep was scattershot, and rolled up a large Israeli spy ring along with all the Arab males and foreigners. [2] New York was wounded but sober. It was the American TV audience that was blown away.

On closer examination – all publicly available information – every Washington-generated myth about al-Qaeda erodes or vaporizes… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Asia Times>

Bush, McConJob, and the GOP keep trotting out the Al Qaeda fear card with the bogus caveat that they and only they can protect America from this nemesis. Yet a closer look (and this article goes on to much more detail), reveals that their very best is completely bush league (pun intended). This leaves us with two possibilities. One is that the GOP Reich were willing accomplices who intentionally allowed the attack to take place in order to capitalize on the opportunities it presented for their wars and assaults on our Constitution. The other is that the GOP Reich is so blatantly incompetent that they are incapable of protecting the US from a troop of Brownie Scouts armed with pea shooters. Either way, the GOP is a greater threat to the security of this nation than Al Qaeda ever hoped to be.

Cross-posted from Politics Plus

Economy: Foxes in the Henhouse

The Treasury Department will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad new authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system.

The proposal is part of a sweeping blueprint to overhaul the nation’s hodgepodge of financial regulatory agencies, which many experts say failed to recognize rampant excesses in mortgage lending until after they set off what is now the worst financial calamity in decades.

Democratic lawmakers are all but certain to say the proposal does not go far enough in restricting the kinds of practices that caused the financial crisis. Many of the proposals, like those that would consolidate regulatory agencies, have nothing to do with the turmoil in financial markets. And some of the proposals could actually reduce regulation.

According to a summary provided by the administration, the plan would consolidate an alphabet soup of banking and securities regulators into a powerful trio of overseers responsible for everything from banks and brokerage firms to hedge funds and private equity firms.

While the plan could expose Wall Street investment banks and hedge funds to greater scrutiny, it carefully avoids a call for tighter regulation.

The plan would not rein in practices that have been linked to the housing and mortgage crisis, like packaging risky subprime mortgages into securities carrying the highest ratings.

The plan would give the Fed some authority over Wall Street firms, but only when an investment bank’s practices threatened the entire financial system.

And the plan does not recommend tighter rules over the vast and largely unregulated markets for risk sharing and hedging, like credit default swaps, which are supposed to insure lenders against loss but became a speculative instrument themselves and gave many institutions a false sense of security… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

The Fed is nothing more than a bankers’ club, whose interest is the profit of the financial institutions, not the well being of US taxpayers, as of course this coincides with the interests of the GOP. Brenecke will be holding a closed briefing in the House on Tuesday for GOP Representatives only, so he can fill them in on Reich’s real intentions and give them talking points to hide those intentions from the public. Meanwhile the rich are fleeing the US economy to preserve their wealth.

Where are investors putting their money in these uncertain times? Apparently, more and more are seeking safer havens in Europe, India, China and Latin America.

With recession fears dogging the U.S. markets, stocks had a dismal first quarter. But according to recent figures from two key research firms that track the mutual fund industry, investors are flocking to overseas markets.

Fund tracker TrimTabs Investment Research reported in its latest weekly report about market liquidity that total inflows into equity mutual funds during the week ended March 26 was $7.43 billion.

But of that total, $4.4 billion, or nearly 60%, was invested in funds that mainly invest in non-U.S. stocks.

What’s more, the latest TrimTabs data showed that investors pulled $6.9 billion from exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that invest in U.S. stocks… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <CNN Money>

Just as in 1929, the rich are taking advantage of inside knowledge and getting out leaving the middle class to go down with the ship. And speaking of rats deserting sinking ships, here’s what one of the very biggest rats is doing.

Wouldn’t you like to know where Dick Cheney puts his money? Then you’d know whether his “deficits don’t matter” claim is just baloney or not.

Well, as it turns out, Kiplinger Magazine ran an article based on Cheney’s financial disclosure statement and, sure enough, found out that the VP is lying to the American people for the umpteenth time. Deficits do matter and Cheney has invested his money accordingly.

The article is called “Cheney’s betting on bad news” and provides an account of where Cheney has socked away more than $25 million. While the figures may be estimates, the investments are not. According to Tom Blackburn of the Palm Beach Post, Cheney has invested heavily in “a fund that specializes in short-term municipal bonds, a tax-exempt money market fund and an inflation protected securities fund. The first two hold up if interest rates rise with inflation. The third is protected against inflation.”

Cheney has dumped another (estimated) $10 to $25 million in a European bond fund which tells us that he is counting on a steadily weakening dollar. So, while working class Americans are loosing ground to inflation and rising energy costs, Darth Cheney will be enhancing his wealth in “Old Europe”. As Blackburn sagely notes, “Not all ‘bad news’ is bad for everybody.”

This should put to rest once and for all the foolish notion that the “Bush Economic Plan” is anything more than a scam aimed at looting the public till. The whole deal is intended to shift the nation’s wealth from one class to another. It’s also clear that Bush-Cheney couldn’t have carried this off without the tacit approval of the thieves at the Federal Reserve who engineered the low-interest rate boondoggle to put the American people to sleep while they picked their pockets.

Reasonable people can dispute that Bush is “intentionally” skewering the dollar with his lavish tax cuts, but how does that explain Cheney’s portfolio?

It doesn’t. And, one thing we can say with metaphysical certainty is that the miserly Cheney would never plunk his money into an investment that wasn’t a sure thing. If Cheney is counting on the dollar tanking and interest rates going up, then, by Gawd, that’s what’ll happen… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Information Clearinghouse>

There you have it my friends, the foxes in the henhouse are running wild and taking every last penny they can under the auspices of No Millionaire Left Behind, leaving the rest of us holding the bag. The GOP is committing class warfare against the middle class and the poor.

Meanwhile, McConJob says the way out of the current crisis is less regulation.

Cross-posted from Politics Plus

Action Alert: Earth Hour

Australia will be one of the first countries in the world to turn off its lights for an hour Saturday night as part of a global campaign to raise awareness about climate change.

Sydney — with its iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge — was among hundreds of cities and towns in more than 35 nations promising to go dark, organizers said.

“What’s amazing is that it’s transcending political boundaries and happening in places like China, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea,” said Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley. “It really seems to have resonated with anybody and everybody.”

Organizers see the event as a way to encourage the world to conserve energy.

Cities in Fiji and New Zealand will be the first to cut lights as clocks strike 8 p.m. Two hours later, lights will go off at Australia’s most famous landmarks and in thousands of shops, apartments and houses nationwide. Cities elsewhere across Asia, Europe and North America will follow.

One of the last major cities to participate with be San Francisco — home to the soon-to-be dimmed Golden Gate Bridge.

While all the lights are unlikely to be cut, it is the symbolic darkening of monuments, businesses and even individual homes that they are anticipating.

Earth Hour debuted last year in Sydney and a reported 2 million people and 2,000 businesses participated, organizers said. The result was a 10.2 percent reduction in the city’s greenhouse gas emissions for the hour, they said…

Inserted from <AP>

Every thing we can do to draw attention to global climate change helps, so please, lights out tonight from 8:00 to 9:00 PM, your time.

Cross-posted from Politics Plus